GordonD

Yorkshire holds its breath as its main shipping route of flat caps, whippets and ale is blocked. Ernie Slatherswaite, Master of the vessel told us "One minute we were fine then a small gust of wind took us." Yorkshire is set to lose upwards of £3.67 a day until the carnage is cleared, which according to Our Uncle Eric in the pub, could take weeks.

Happy birthday to Britmodeller itself, founded on this day! (Don't know how Mike losted it in the first place...)

No, you're not!

My wife got really mad when I told her she had no sense of direction. She packed up her bags and right.

Yorkshireman goes to the vet. "It's about me cat," he says. "It's started hissing and spitting whenever anyone goes near it." The vet asks, "Is it a tom?" "Nay, lad," replies the man. "I brought it wi' me!"

Deleted - duplicate!

Perseverance is down safely on the Martian surface!

My wife kicked me out because of my terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions. But don't worry, I'll return.

Paddy was visiting friends but as the evening wore on it started to rain - absolutely chucking it down. There was no sign of it easing off so the host said, "Look, Paddy, you're welcome to stay the night. I'll turn down the spare bed for you." Half an hour later the doorbell went and the host was surprised to find Paddy there, soaked to the skin. "Where on earth have you been?" he asked. Paddy replied, "I went home for my pyjamas."

I would have answered before now but I was pretending I was in a freeze-frame.

I went to the doctor and he told me to face the window and put my tongue out. "Will that help you diagnose what's wrong with me?" I asked. "No," he said, "but I don't like the man in the office across the road."

FWIW Revell's Orbiter had full cabin detail (and a removable roof so you could see it) but the payload door hinges were non-scale. It may also have had the tile detail inscribed but I never built one so can't be sure if that's correct. Monogram's didn't have the cabin detail but the door hinges were accurate (and quite fragile) so you paid your money and took your choice. Of course Monogram also issued the full stack as well as the standalone Orbiter. Bottom line: if the box mentions cabin detail then it must be the original Revell one.

I will probably post details of EVAs as and when they're carried out, just to keep things up to date.

Three years ago I decided, just for fun, to do a daily post listing astronauts who were born on that date, so that anyone celebrating their own birthday could see who they shared it with. Even with the large number of people who have flown in space, or been selected to do so and never flew, there were still some blank days, but there was nothing I could do about that. The following year I posted manned space flights which had launched or landed on each day. Again, there were some days without any, but I did my best to find significant events in astronautical or astronomical history - sometimes with more success than others! - so there weren't any gaps. Come 2020 and I've been chronicling EVAs. This actually involved significantly more work than the others - not in the preparations in assigning each one to a particular date in the year but because instead of a simple list I've been describing what activities were carried out. To be honest, this could be a bit of a pain at times, especially if I had something that had to be done, and it was often quite pleasant to be able to put "No EVAs on this date" and be done with it. Conversely there were days with four EVAs which had to be described... But now we've come to the end. I can't think of anything to follow these - somebody suggested unmanned satellites but that would be well-nigh impossible. There have been literally thousands in the sixty years since Sputnik 1, and sorting them into calendar dates would be a major undertaking. I also imagine it would make for very dull reading. So I can get my mornings back! So as I hang up my scribe's quill, I'd like to thank those who have followed along. In particular, thanks to Bengalensis, whose constant 'likes' in the EVA thread reassured me that unlike the SETI people I wasn't putting this stuff out there with no idea if anybody was receiving it! I hope 2021 is a safe and NORMAL one for you all.

31 DECEMBER No EVAs on this date.

30 DECEMBER No EVAs on this date.

29 DECEMBER 1973 Gerald Carr & Ed Gibson (Skylab 4) Duration 3 hr 28 min The astronauts retrieved the Thermal Control Coatings Experiment panel for analysis, then carried out further observations of Comet Kohoutek as it appeared from behind the Sun. While they were working, ice formed on the front of Carr's suit, due to a minor coolant leak. This had also happened during the spacewalk on Christmas Day but was not considered serious. Second EVA for both.

28 DECEMBER No EVAs on this date.

27 DECEMBER 2013 Oleg Kotov & Sergei Ryazansky (ISS Expedition 38) Duration 8 hr 7 min (a Russian record) The cosmonauts installed two cameras onto the Zvezda platform they had built during their previous EVA on 9 November. After connecting the data leads, Kotov jettisoned the cable reel into space. However, the Russian ground controllers did not receive any signals, so the cosmonauts were instructed to photograph the connectors and remove the cameras for analysis. The pair then removed and jettisoned the Vsplesk experiment package, which had been installed in July 2008 to monitor seismic effects using high-energy particle streams. This was replaced by Seismoprognoz, a more sophisticated package carrying out a similar function. Even though this became the longest Russian EVA in history, the problems with the cameras meant that some tasks had to be left undone, including the removal of a frame that once held Japanese space exposure packages and the installation of a payload boom. Fifth EVA for Kotov; Ryazansky's second.

26 DECEMBER No EVAs on this date.

25 DECEMBER 1973 Gerald Carr & Bill Pogue (Skylab 4) Duration 7 hr 1 min There was no Christmas Day off for the astronauts as they carried out an EVA to attach the X-ray/Ultraviolet Solar Photography experiment to the ATM Truss. This should have been deployed from the scientific airlock but that was now blocked by the parasol. The astronauts also took forty photographs of Comet Kohoutek, replaced ATM film, retrieved space exposure samples and pinned open another malfunctioning aperture door. They then returned to the airlock while Ed Gibson, aboard Skylab, manoeuvred the workshop to the proper attitude to photograph the comet in ultraviolet. The astronauts installed the UV camera to the truss, took three sequences of ten photographs each then brought it back to the airlock. Finally, they repaired a telescope filter wheel, a difficult job in their bulky spacesuit gloves, using a dental mirror and screwdriver. Carr's first EVA; the second and last for Pogue: his career total amounts to 13 hr 34 min.

24 DECEMBER 1999 Steven Smith & John Grunsfeld (STS-103) Duration 8 hr 8 min The third and final EVA of the mission saw the astronauts replacing one of Hubble's radio transmitters, which had ceased operating the previous year. As these transmitters are normally extremely reliable, it had not been expected that one would fail and as such they had not been designed for on-orbit replacement. Despite this, the astronauts managed the job using specially-designed EVA tools. They also replaced Hubble's mechanical reel-to-reel recorder with a digital solid state unit, with more than ten times the capacity. The EVA lasted about an hour longer than planned, partly due to difficulties in hooking Grunsfeld's suit up to Orbiter power in the airlock, but when it was over Hubble was in far better condition than it had been three days earlier. Smith's fifth EVA; Grunsfeld's second. 2013 Rick Mastracchio & Michael Hopkins (ISS Expedition 38) Duration 7 hr 30 min The astronauts completed the replacement of the faulty coolant pump by retrieving the spare unit from its stowage platform and sliding it into place, then connecting the ammonia feed lines. During this process they noticed flakes escaping from a valve, so they were instructed to examine their spacesuits for possible contamination but it was determined that there was no problem and they did not have to perform the 'bake out' procedure at the end of the EVA, in which they would allow the Sun's rays to remove any ammonia traces before returning inside. Electrical lines were then hooked up but the pump itself would not be restarted until ground controllers had carried out additional tests. Eighth EVA for Mastracchio; Hopkins' second and last to date: his career total is currently 12 hr 58 min, but at the time of writing he is on orbit as a member of Expedition 64 (he is Dragon Crew-1 Commander) so it is possible this may change.